


Falling

by shit_all_good_names_are_taken



Category: Marvel, Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Genre: Comedy, Eventual Smut, F/M, Female Reader, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Crack, He might be a bit ooc because I wtached the german version of this show, Hurt/Comfort, I wrote this out of frustration because there are no Flash Thompson x Readers out there???, Nova is a n00b so he'll bring you into danger, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Probably writing a male version for this sometime, Rating May Change, Reader is getting bullied heavily at school, Reader's dad is an alcoholic, Reader-Insert, Slow Burn, So reader tried to commit suicide, Suicide Attempt, Swearing, and an asshole, but Nova saves the day
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-07-25 18:33:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7543447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shit_all_good_names_are_taken/pseuds/shit_all_good_names_are_taken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Okay, Okay. He saved you once. Once you DID attempt to commit suicide by jumping off a building, regretting your choice a few seconds before you would hit the ground.</p><p>Luckily, he was there to save you. You admit your reaction was highly inappropriate considering you were indeed thankful for being saved. </p><p>But from this day on you keep on getting injured and falling from god knows what places because that guy is also a shitty newbie as a hero, and somehow always ends up fighting close to your locations.</p><p> </p><p>A bucket full of BS</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A second chance

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize in advance for grammar fails and such. I am actually german so I might have trouble sometime.
> 
> I'd apprecciate if you tell me if there are any errors.

You can hear people yelling different things, you can hear police sirens, someone shouting something through a megaphone. But you aren't listening.

You stood close enough to the edge, you only had to lean over ever so slightly to fall. Making it all end. This was the moment you could rethink your choice, the moment of truth, the moment you will realize if you really wish to end your life, or wait till you die through fate.

You took a deep breath, still not paying attention to the people on the street. If you make it quick, you could at least die before the police sends someone to your position to try to talk you out of it. Would suck to make someone feel like it's their fault you jumped anyway.

Yet, you didn't really care. It was others making you want to do this in the first place.

Exhaling the deep breath, you closed your eyes and leaned over, falling from the rooftop. You know you will lose consciousness before you hit the ground, not feeling the impact. You hear people screaming hysterically.

You felt your mind slipping, no. Wait! You didn't want to die! You-

_Fwoop._

Cheering noises, sighs of relief. A warm presence. You opened your eyes, mind a bit hazy, and found yourself in the arms of a hero. A young guy, wearing a black suit with gold plates, a black helmet almost covering his entire face except for his cocky smirk, and a red star on it.

“ Jesus fucking Christ! “

“ Language! And you can call me Nova, the human rocket! “, he replied, grin widening. 

The shock from the whole situation messing with your common sense, you did simply not realize you should be thankful. Instead you were only getting furious. You started squirming until you were able to move your arm and punch him in the face, causing him to make a surprise noise close to a yelp and let you fall. You were close enough to the ground to just fall uncomfortably onto your ass, a throbbing pain rushing through your pelvis. But the adrenaline made you manage to stand up quickly and ran off before the police could attempt to get a hold of you.

Rubbing his face, Nova watched your form turning around a corner, knowing he should probably stop you. Should he? Yeah, you did attempt to commit suicide, the police will need to to get a hold on you to ask questions, yada yada.

Regaining his composure, he followed you, but you were gone when he turned around the same corner. 

Simply, gone. 

Huh.

 

You waited till the noise died down before you crawled out of your hiding spot. You were honestly surprised no one checked the dumpster. 

Okay the smell does make you feel less surprised. It was the dumpster belonging to a restaurant. It will take forever to get rid of that smell.

But at least, you got another chance. Sighing, you climbed out of the container, trying to adjust your clothes enough to not get too much attention – but the smell will make that impossible.

Running home as fast as you could was your best option. 

At least no one knew who you were. Once you got home safely, everything will turn back to normal.

Or so, you thought. You had no idea that the guy who saved you was going to the same school. You had no idea he easily identified you already, and was planning on unobtrusively finding out what the heck was going on in the first place. He already decided that he won't tell the team about his encounter with you. If he did, he'd have to confess he was thanked by a punch in the face, causing him to yelp and drop you.

Not cool. 

Let's see what he knows about you.

Your name was (Y/N) (L/N)..

An incredibly silent girl in school, average grades, always seems to wear gym clothes underneath regular clothes because you refuse to change into your underwear in front of others – he saw your gym shorts through your pants sometimes.  
Plus, Ava once commented on that. Not in a backstabbing way, in a way of ' what would she be hiding? '.

Backstabbing – oh, yeah he does recall hearing something about you getting bullied. And no one ever saw your parents. Maybe you had none? He could relate to that feeling.

You never sit at a table in the cafeteria. You always sit somewhere on the ground, or aren't in the room to begin with.

You almost never raise your hand in class and stutter, whispering almost, when a teacher calls you to answer a question. 

You always avoid eye-contact.

You are never seen hanging with someone else, maybe you had no friends to begin with? 

Despite the fact Flash Thompson was the #1 bully in school, he leaves you alone for the fact he doesn't bully females, instead it's a group of girls bullying you.

Was that the reason you wanted to jump? He'll find out. No one can resist charming Sam Alexander, right?

No way you'd refuse to befriend him. He found himself smirking cockily again. Nothing unusual.

He'll have to wipe off that stupid grin when he's back at the tricarrier. This was his own, special undercover mission. He wanted to pull that off without anyone butting in. Stealthily, proving once again his leadership skills  
Before the Webhead showed up, he was the leader anyway!

 

Ugh, forget about it. He had something else to focus his thoughts on. How to fix your problems and be an even better hero. In and out of the costume. 

This would sound so damn honorable, if he would do that for you, but he is actually only doing it out of pride. For himself.

 

You managed to get home safely, having a hard time breathing for running so much, your legs hurt like hell. 

“Anyone home?“, you hesitantly called out. Luckily, there was no answer. Sighing in relief you stripped of your stinking clothes, threw them into the washing machine and took a nice, hot shower. Your mind jumped back to what happened today.

You tried to take your own life, for fucks sake. Were you insane? Your life was shitty, truth be told, but life was something worth cherishing. And this dude – Nova it was? Saved your goddamn life. And you thanked him by panicking and punching him in the face. You still felt the throb from the fall when your ass hit the concrete.

If you ever see that guy again, you'll thank him properly. You mentally decided on that.

Luck was on your side, You've been alone at home the whole night.

 

This was unusual for Sam. Normally, he was the last one to wake up and get ready for school, Ava being the first. But not this time. When Ava woke up he already left the tricarrier to head to school. He was just too excited to start his secret, personal mission!

It was still dark outside.. Okay, maybe he should have at least eaten some breakfast before he left. Both to pass time and to make sure he won't nearly starve till he could hit the cafeteria.

He wondered if you would be the type to show up early to school to get to class before the bullies would emerge, if you would just join the crowd in an attempt to hide in them, or if you are one of the late one's so that no one has the time to assault you.

He never really payed much attention to that.

Well, now he'll find out, won't he? Sam was glad he woke up before the others did. It would be troublesome to try and explain why he was suddenly interested in you when he barely noticed your existence previously. Yet he was Sam Alexander for heavens sake! It was normal for him to talk to girls whenever he could. Not really flirting per say, but – well... being his charming self. He loved the attention.

There it was. Midtown High. The moment of truth, or more like ONE of the moments of truth.

His eyes scanned the area. You nowhere to be seen. Damn, he could have had some nice food instead!

 

Your alarm clock rings mercilessly, and you peeled yourself out of the comfortable bed. Before daring to open your door, you listened closely for any kind of sound.

None. You were still alone at home. Jackpot!

You quickly washed your face, brushed your teeth and prepared yourself for school. While getting your hair done, you stared at your face in the mirror's reflection. Judging yourself.

Maybe you should try to hide yourself behind make-up like all the other girls in school do. Maybe then you would like yourself, or someone else would like you. Your mother's make-up kit was still there, even though she passed away long ago, leaving you alone with your father whom became an alcoholic. He never hit you. He never abused you. 

But he is blaming your mother's death on you. Every single time both of you are at home, he won't stop bugging you with how it's your fault. You eventually started to believe it yourself.

Ever since she passed away, your life started to turn into a hell. No one knew you changed so much because of your mother's death. No one knew she died in the first place. You never mentioned it, wanting to avoid being called an attention whore, or hearing them blame her death on you as well. 

She was the only one who cared about you. 

_What about the hero though?_

He didn't care. Nova was doing his job. He probably did not give a single shit about you as a person. 

No one does.

Sighing, and feeling a heavy tug at your chest from the knowledge of being all alone in the world, you made your way to school once more. At least the bullies ran out of ideas. They just repeat things they've already done to you, slowly hardening you. But it still hurts to know no one is helping you.

When you arrived, you were honestly surprised to see someone else waiting in front of the school. Usually you've been the first. You started to feel panic. What if that is one of them?

No, this can't be one of them. As you got closer, you saw this was indeed a boy, not a girl. So none of your bullies.

 

// Finally! //, Sam thought when he saw you shyly get closer to the school, making sure to stop at a considerable distance to him. Looking to the ground, making no noise. You looked like a startled deer, ready to run at any second, only that you were facing the asphalt.

You two have been alone, a perfect opportunity to start his undercover business without raising suspicion!

Sam saw you tense up slightly as he approached you, grinning brightly as always.

“ Hi! You're (Y/N), right? Didn't expect you to show up so early! “

You felt a lump form in your throat. Why was he talking to you? You were a nobody! Maybe just to kill time until school starts. Might aswell answer him.

“ I'm... always so early here. What about you..? “

“ Couldn't sleep, had the feeling today would be a great day, you know what I mean? “

You shook your head, still not looking up. You did turn your face into his direction to signal you're listening, but that was it.

Sam would probably have to make you get out of your shell to successfully start his mission. 

“ I know I am one intimidating guy, but I don't bite! Come on, look me in the face when I'm talking to you! “, he cheerfully beamed, making you flinch a bit.

“ I'd... rather not.. I'm not good with people. “

_But good enough to punch a hero in the face, huh?_

He shook that thought of, not loosing his cheerfulness.

“ Why's that? It's not like I'm going to punch you in the face or anything. “

Was that passive-aggressive? Yeah, probably a bit. But you didn't notice, how could you? You didn't know you're currently talking to that one person that saved your life.

But your stomach twisted hearing that. 

“ y-yeah.. probably... That's how I'm bad with people I did... nevermind. “

So, you DID feel bad about it? 

“ You did what? Punch someone? Didn't expect you to be the type to do that. “

Your stomach twists once more. If you tell him what happened yesterday, you would never hear the end of it. One more enemy? No thank you.

“ I'd rather not talk about that, it was a panic reaction... please keep it at that.. “

A panic reaction. Okay, he could deal with that. Sadly, he ran out of subjects to talk about.

Randomness. Just bring up something random, keep the conversation flowing!

“ Hey, did you know I can sculpt principal Coulson out of mashed potatoes? “

You needed to take a double take on that information. Why- how.. Id did catch you off-guard enough to raise your head and actually look him into the eyes, which made them widen.

Even though he did have you in his arms yesterday and your faces were just a few inches separated, he didn't really pay attention to the details of your face, let alone your eyes.

_They were stunning._

Little did he know, you did admire his eyes as well. A beautiful shade of- wait, you're looking him in the eyes. Abort, abort!

Within split seconds, you looked at the ground again. Awkward silence spreading over the two of you. 

Sam was just about to pick up the conversation again, but he got interrupted by his teammates yelling his name and running up to him.  
You were indeed like a startled deer. The moment you heard them, and saw the small group getting closer, you backed off once again. You didn't even notice you did get closer to Sam in the first place.

As expected, they didn't really pay attention to you.

 

Recess. Damn, Sam didn't have the chance to talk to you more. So he needed to do something risky. **Invite you to their table.**  
Risky, as in he would risk that a: someone would notice what he is planning to do, or b: someone else would finish his self-given mission – may it be by accident or on purpose.. He could easily see Danny with his carefree, relaxed personality helping you with your daily struggles. No can do. It was HIS mission. 

Fuck it, he'll risk it. 

You were just about to disappear into wherever the hell you go during recess, when Sam got a hold of your shoulder, causing you to physically cringe and whimper silently, not able to see whose hand is there. You expected it to be one of _them_. 

“ Hey (Y/N), wanna sit with us? “

What? 

“ What? “  
“ You heard me! Come on, just don't panic and punch someone and you'll be fine. “  
He was winking, teasing. You were unsure how to react. You looked up slightly, and saw his group of friends behind him, waiting for him to join them to go to the cafeteria. Probably wondering why someone like him would want someone like you to sit with them. You lowered your gaze again, shaking a bit.

But.. when you're not alone, it's far less easy to bully you. Unless they are bullies as well. But they simply don't look like they would be.

 

You tried to kill yourself.. now you had a second chance.. maybe this was part of this chance? Having actual friends for the first time in forever?

“ O-only if no one minds.. “, you spoke, voice barely above a whisper.

Sam turned around to his friends, making a questioning gesture. Most of them shrugged, only Ava verbally telling “ Sure, why not? “, and both Mary Jane and Danny making a waving gesture to make you scoot closer to the group.

They smiled in a friendly way, but you couldn't really see that. You did manage to look up enough to see everyone's torso, so you did at least notice the waving gestures.

Somehow, you felt most safe if you do get closer, but hide behind Sam.

Yes, you are focused on him, the mission can officially – okay not so officially – begin!

 

This was refreshing. You had to admit. Sitting at a table, with a group of friendly people, no one trying to assault you, to make you feel bad, or ignoring your existence too much. You did get nudged occasionally when someone cracked a joke, or had a good comeback. You caught yourself trying to hold back a giggle when you saw how Sam and Peter started arguing about something you didn't quite caught on, but it was funny nevertheless. 

Who knows, maybe they would let you sit here more often..? You were able to eat in peace for once, not having to worry about the girls finding you. They wouldn't be stupid enough to bully you while you're surrounded by others, right?

 

**Wrong.**

The argument between Peter and Sam died down, alongside the noise from everyone on the table, as something hit your head _hard_. A dining tray. You chocked back any kind of sound, only tensing up, starting to shiver slightly and rubbing your aching head. 

“ Look at you, (L/N), sitting there and trying to fit in~! “

You would recognize that voice anywhere. She was basically the female equivalent to Flash Thompson. Only that girls are by far much worse when they are bullies. Male bullies just hurt you physically, steal your lunch money or something. But girls are professional when it comes to destroy their victims.

“ Hey, you got a problem with (Y/N) you got to get through me, first! “

Something you never expected to see ever again. Someone – in this case _literally_ \- standing up for you. Sam.

It seems that also surprised the others, but it didn't take long until everyone stood up, agreeing. They barely knew you, and yet they did that for you.

If you weren't still shivering and tense, you would probably be able to process what they are doing for you better, and probably end up crying in happiness. And it all began with Sam.

Him being suddenly there, too early to school for once, deciding to keep himself entertained by talking to you. How- How did you do that? What did you do differently this time?

Maybe you should allow yourself to feel attached to someone again. It's been so long, and having a friend was something you craved. Especially someone willing to protect you, and to introduce you to his group of friends.

 

You were so busy with your thoughts you didn't even notice that everyone sat down again and looked at you. Another nudge finally made you snap back into reality, looking at Luke whom sat across from you. Yeah, actually looking. You rose your head enough. He was surprised, you could tell that from his eyebrow's movements, but let it slide that you actually made eye-contact.

“ (Y/N) we asked you something. “, he calmly informed you, yet concern was audible.

“ I-I-I'm sorry.. I.. didn't mean to... “

“ Easy there, no one's angry with you. We just wanted to know if you might want to stick around more. You know, to scare off the bullies. “

“ It did work for me, Flash leaves me alone most of the time unless he manages to catch me in the hallway! “, Peter added. So, he was getting bullied, too.

Another stomach twist, but this time, it was a pleasant one.

“ I-If.. If you don't mind... “

You did not notice, not at all, but Sam did. You scooted closer to him. As if your body showed what you thought;“ But I trust Sam the most. “

 

You may, or may not, regret that thought.


	2. Meeting again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You were at the wrong place, at the wrong time

You couldn’t even remember the last time you felt so relaxed on your way home. You didn’t make friends yet per say, but you have people to stay close to, people that won’t let you get harmed again. At least, a slong as they are around you. Mary Jane actually offered to walking you home since she had to head that way to begin with, to deliver something. You didn’t quite catch on what exactly her business was. The only thing that you registered about that was “Today they can’t get me on my way back home either.”

And if today really was your lucky day, your dad won’t be home again. Just one perfect day, just a single one, can’t be too much to ask for, right?

“Since when did you and Sam become friends? I never really saw you much before today.”

Oh MJ that was a very good question.

“T-To be honest I don’t really know… I just came to school as usually, very early… a-and he was just there, talking to me. That’s basically all.”

She hummed, knowing that Sam usually tends to oversleep. So him getting up and heading to school early sounded out of character, even for a person with such a colorful personality.

“That’s strange, even for him, and he is the type of guy that tries to impress people by sculpting stuff out of food. At least he is good at that though.”

That hurt a little. Your gaze lowered more, not focusing on the street ahead anymore, but instead your shoes. MJ quickly caught up to how offensive that might have sounded and cleared her throat before explaining the actual core of her statement.

“I meant him getting up early, sorry if it came out wrong. He just… well he usually shows up late because he overslept or something.”

“Oh…” You silently added, feeling a bit relieved and raising your gaze back at the sidewalk again.

There was an awkward silence between the two of you. You couldn’t blame her for that. There is not much people know about you, and your shy, easily scared behaviour made it hard to figure out which topics to talk about. But MJ already planned on trying to ‘repair’ whatever is broken with you, she never saw someone as openly depressed as you in school, and now that you are part of their friend’s circle, she’s ought to help you. 

Only that it will probably be Sam who figures it out first. Actually, he even followed the two of you. Of course stealthily, watching from above, just barely within the clouds. Enough to be slightly hidden and hard to see, but not too much to be able to navigate and observe.

MJ came to a halt, asking if it’s okay if you two split up now, since she now had to take the right, while you had to continue straight on to reach your home. She even hugged you before she left. You froze, when was the last time you were hugged?

Ah, right, the night your mother died. You and your dad sat in the hospital, clinging to each other and crying your eyes out. Two weeks later he turned into that alcoholic bastard he is now. You still loved him, and when he was not drinking he was actually pleasant, but it was very, very rare. Everyone had their own way of dealing with loss, and he shouldn’t have chosen alcohol when he had a daughter, also suffering, and needing him more than ever at home.

At least you didn’t cut. You were too proud to hurt yourself and walk around with scars, that would let the bullies only focus on you even more, seeing that as a sign of attention-whoreing. And you didn’t want that kind of attention.

You silently opened the door, once more hesitantly calling out if anyone’s home. A snore told you that he was, and thankfully asleep. There was a 50/50 chance that he would be sober when he wakes up. It depends on how much he drank, and on how long he sleeps.

You rushed into the kitchen making you a sandwich before hastily getting into your room and blocking the door with a chair. As mentioned - he never hit you, he probably never will. But he sometimes barges into your room to yell at you.

 

Wow, this house was in an awful state. The grass needs to be mowed badly, all kinds of weeds between the dried out blades, the windows badly needed to get cleaned, too. The house itself could really use some new paint since the old was already peeling off. Sam was outright horrified when he saw that. Maybe his theory of you having no parents anymore was correct, it would explain a lot, including the state of your home.

Sam landed, deciding to take the risk and peek through the windows - well, attempting to peek, since they really were dirty. Doing that he saw your father sleeping in an armchair in front of the TV, empty bottles of several alcoholic beverages all across the room, a half-empty bottle of what he assumed was scotch in his hands. Sweat, saliva and vomit on his probably never-washed wife-beater.

He looked too much like a clichée to be a real person, Sam needed a double-take on that and even as he looked again, he saw the very same thing. Thus, his theory of you being an orphan was proven false. His new theory was your father abusing, hurting or even….

He didn’t even notice how his hands formed fists on these thoughts. He was angry, very angry. Even if he wasn’t touching or hurting you, he doesn’t look like he is taking the responsibility of being a father.

Even though he wanted to look for more clues, he had to go. It was too risky already, peeping through windows in open daylight while wearing his costume. If that dude wakes up, or you get downstairs or whatever, he would be unable to explain shit. He hated that thought of leaving you unprotected with that maybe-child-abuser, but he had absolutely no other option. Especially considering the fact he still had training to go through today.

 

You rose your head from your desk as you heard a familiar sound from outside, you could have sworn you heard the same noise yesterday when that hero rescued you. Looking outside the window you saw nothing unusual. Maybe your mind was playing tricks on you. Sighing and deciding to leave the window open for some fresh air, you continued doing your homework, checking your cellphone every now and then.

That was a new thing. You usually ignored that thing completely, only using it to listen to music, for your alarms, and browsing the internet when you had nothing better to do. but this time, you had reason to check. Before you all headed home, you and your new ‘almost’ friends exchanged numbers. You were impatiently waiting for one of them to text you, since you didn’t have the balls to text anyone first unless you had some good reason to. Like an emergency or something.

1 hour later, you got your first messages. One from Harry, two from MJ. Even though you were more than happy to have gotten any kind of message in the first place, you sort of hoped one would have been from Sam. Shit, you really got attached to him fast, huh? Almost dependant. Well who could blame you considering the fact you wouldn’t be here, texting with people that might soon become actual friends, if he wouldn’t have been at the right place on the right time.

Since you already finished your homework, you laid back on your bed and responded, eventually ending up in a group conversation, both MJ and Harry trying to get you to join social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and such. You tried to stand your ground with comments like ‘I have nothing to worth sharing’ or ‘I don’t even have any picture of me where I actually look good.’, but the latter got MJ obsessed with the idea of spending the weekend with you for a photoshooting. She told you that it would be good practice for her, because of her future career interests. SHe would even let you put on her clothes if you can’t find anything nice.

You could spend an entire weekend away from home, away from your dad, with a normal person, wanting to do normal friendship stuff. The price would be that you actually do join the social media. An acceptable price as long as you don’t gain much attention, just liking and sharing stuff from your small circle of persons that gained your trust.

You were just about to type an agreement to her offer when you heard heavy footsteps coming closer to your door, your hands freezing in place and your heart beating so heavily you felt a lump in your throat forming.

You shouldn’t have eaten that sandwich, the second he banged on your door, trying to get in, you felt like throwing up from the tension. You could hear muffled, angry noises from behind the door. Drunk gibberish, you could only make out a few insults. Tears began streaming down your face. You closed your eyes, hoping that would make it end sooner, the furious buzzing of your phone barely distracting you. You stopped typing mid-sentence, which made MJ and Harry worry. They are currently bombarding you with texts.

Hoping it would make time fly away faster you opened your tear-blurried eyes again and looked at the screen, typing with shaking fingers that you are okay, just your dad being in a bad mood. You wanted it to sound like no big deal, like nothing to worry about. But the amount of typos were giving away that you were indeed distressed. 

‘Shall I come and get you? I can ask my parents if you can stay for the rest of the week and we do the shooting tomorrow after school,’ MJ answered. Harry quickly agreeing that it was a good idea, and that he would then invite you and MJ to the “Bad Movie Marathon” he planned with Peter this weekend.

Now you outright sobbed, in this case from happiness though. You only had to wait till your father was leaving you alone as usual. He usually leaves you alone after a while of being unable to get into your room and scream at you face to face, to drown himself in self pity and alcohol again. If you were extremely lucky, he’d even head out to get more.

‘Yeah… it would be nice if you could come and pick me up.’

 

As expected, your father eventually left you alone again, and you could hear the front door smash as he left the house. You silently snuck out of your room to check if he really left, and after confirming that you indeed were alone, you packed all the things you’d need for the rest of the week and texted MJ once more to tell her you are ready. 30 minutes later you saw a taxi stop across your house, and MJ getting out with an appalled look on her face. You quickly dashed outside, almost lunging into the taxi as fast as you could as if a demon would sit inside the house.

MJ saw your reddened eyes, your shaking hands. She saw you were in a terrible state, but respected your boundaries and didn’t ask. You will talk about it when you are ready to do so, or when you trust her enough. Even though you were now in a cab, getting away from that terrible house, you still held onto your cellphone like a lifeline.

 

MJ’s parents were just perfect. As soon as you left the cab and got inside with her, you were greeted by them, the mother instantly rushing around you and trying to be a good host by constantly offering you something to eat or drink. Your parents used to be just like that before your mother passed away. It would make you cry, but you didn’t want to burst into tears again - especially not in front of strangers - so instead you focused on how pleasant it was for once.

 

By now, 4 hours have passed ever since you exchanged numbers with everyone. Still no messages from the others. Only Harry eventually popping up with ideas for the bad movie marathon, and MJ next to you, furiously looking through her closet in order to find outfits for the shooting tomorrow.

It was admittedly weird how the rest of the group started talking to you almost simultaneously after a while. It was obvious thanks to that, that they all were occupied with each other. God knows what they have been doing.

Ava just wanted to check if your homework answers matched, Luke only send you a ‘What’s up?’, Peter didn’t text you yet - he was probably talking to Harry first about the change of plans for the weekend. And whatever the hell that what Danny send you was supposed to mean. Maybe some confucius quote or some shit. As you tried to decipher it, the long awaited message from Sam finally arrived, even though you weren’t sure what you expected. But you did expect him to text you. As soon as you saw his name on the screen you somehow felt as if the day was now officially saved again, even though it was actually MJ rescuing you, with a little help from Harry - he was the one paying for the cab for example.

Despite the fact his text said nothing but ‘whaddup?’, you were happy. You were actually, genuinely happy. You told him that you were staying with MJ till the weekend, and about the plans with Harry, MJ and Peter.

You didn’t notice how MJ stared at you while you were completely drown into the cellphone, texting back as fast as you could at every response. But only when Sam messaged you, he was your top priority. A mischievous grin crept up her face as she mistook the signals - or was she - and leaned in, touching your shoulder with hers.

“Getting a little excited over Alexander, huh?”

You needed a moment to process she talked to you as you were way too much focusing on the little device in your hand, so you looke dup and just hummed in confusion.

“You almost type faster than he is able to respond, play it cool if you want to get him.”

FInally, you realized what your actions looked like, and what she was referring to. Your cheeks lit up as you tried to explain, of course stuttering. It’s not like you _like_ like him, it’s just that you kind of feel safe with him the most. That was also exactly what you told her. In between a lot of stuttering, that is. Her hummed response and the fact her expression didn’t change told you she wasn’t buying it. In order to signalize her that you meant it, you stopped paying all of the attention to Sam alone, which ended in you finding out through Peter and Luke that the weekend plans changed once more, and that it will be a big get together plus sleepover.

You still didn’t respond to Danny, the sheer nature of his message was just too confusing, you actually had to ask MJ what it meant. Finding out she also had no idea, you just responded with an honest ‘I appreciate whatever you were trying to tell me here but I honestly have no idea what this means.’

His explanation he send with the next response was just as confusing, so you gave up and pretended as if you understood and called it a day.

 

It was nice to walk with someone to school, especially considering that MJ and Peter were actually neighbours so you had two so-to-say bodyguards at your side. Even though Peter wasn’t looking his best since your routine was to get up very early. MJ however had no problem with leaving that early.

They talked about Hot Dogs and some other unimportant stuff, a nice change of things to hear people have conversations about random things like these in your presence. Though you didn’t have much to add. The topics of the conversation quickly changed though as someone else joined in halfway without you noticing. Sam.

He greeted everyone with a cheerful “Heya!” just to be greeted back from Peter with a “What the hell are you doing here you don’t even live on this street.”

He rubbed his neck with a nervous chuckle, trying to find a good explanation. You stared at the ground, nervous, but glad about his presence. Without realizing it, you inched closer to him again, almost standing right behind the boy. Peter didn’t notice, he was too busy fighting with Sam - at least in a playful way - but MJ and Sam himself noticed. MJ had that grin on her face again, Sam was unreadable since he usually had a cocky smirk on his face to begin with.

The fight between the two males was actually entertaining and hilarious, it made you grin like an idiot, and you didn’t even notice that you already arrived at the school, and that the rest of the group slowly joined in. They were currently fighting about something about peanuts, you didn’t quite catch on, but you found out that Sam was allergic to them in between. Poor guy will never find out what reese’s taste like.

You saw the group of bullies glaring at you from your peripheral vision. Since your group was bigger now, they didn’t dare getting closer. They will probably wait for you to be alone before they take action. But if things go as smoothly as they did yesterday, they won’t have that chance. Especially considering the fact you won’t be walking alone after school for the rest of the week. It’s just 3 days before weekend but who cares, you will figure something out for next week.

MJ’s parents are real gems, they even gave you money for lunch. Something they really didn’t have to do, but did nevertheless. A heartwarming gesture.

During the biology class you got started for a second when you felt someone poke at your shoulder. Hesitantly, you turned around to see one of your classmates holding a piece of paper to you from underneath the desk. You frowned and took it, unfolding it to see a bad drawing of a snake, saying ‘I am snek, I do a hiss’, next to a badly drawn dog, saying ‘stop it snek u are doing me a frighten’

That caught you so off-guard you had to fight the urge to burst into laughter very hard. Luck was on your side since the teacher didn’t notice a thing. You turned around once more, already having a speculation about who doodled this and let it get to you. And as you expected, you saw Sam grinning like an idiot and giving you a thumbs up from the back row.

Wait, what do people do when they get things like this, are you supposed to keep it? Write or draw something, too, and send it back? Well you didn’t even know what to draw or write, so you kept it.

The rest of the school day was uneventful. You managed to always stay close to at least one of your friends - mostly Sam - so you were safe from getting bullied this day, you also collected 3 more of these little notes, all with random memes on them, and got baffled with Danny’s weird quotes twice. One day you will understand the stuff he says when he is in that weird, inspirational mode, but today is not that day.

But other than that, nothing out of the ordinary happened. That was until you, Peter and MJ were on the way back home. Feeling actually pretty good this day, and being excited about the fact that MJ would dress you up and start taking pictures of you that would actually, for once, look good, you were in the best of moods and joined in the random conversations while actually looking them in the eyes while talking. Even though the only topics you could come up with were the little notes you got from Sam, the fact you had no idea whatever the fuck Danny means with the weird stuff he says, and asking if MJ and Peter are a couple. 

Peter rolled his eyes at the little note thing, MJ just grinned and nudged you with her elbow, both of them agreed that they, too, sometimes had problems understanding Danny’s fortune cookie phrases, and they also informed you that they once, when they were 12, decided to be a couple, but instantly regretted it since they saw each other as siblings. That was unexpected to be honest, but whatever floats their boat.

You didn’t even get to walk half of the way when you three heard loud crashes, as if two cars collided. You were surprised about how quickly Peter reacted and pushed both you and Mary Jane behind him upon hearing this noise. 

“What was that? We need to take a look!”  
You expected Mary Jane to say that, you already figured out she was very much into this stuff, getting as much information as possible, which only made her choice of a future career more understandable. Peter was just about to disagree when the source of the sound showed itself by flying down the street, chased by - and you needed another double take for that - the same hero that saved your life. According to the yelling of Nova, the other person was “The Beetle”. And the Beetle was furiously flying around, shooting every now and then in an attempt to get Nova of his tail. As fastly as the two appeared in your vision, just as fastly they disappeared again. 

“Well now you have your answer MJ, go take (Y/N) and head home, I will take a look if someone’s needing first aid!”

“You can do first aid?” MJ asked with a risen eyebrow, unwilling to just leave. 

“Of course I can! Look, (Y/N) is really scared, just grab her and get into safety!”

That much was true, you were scared. Heavily scared. There was a dude in a mecha bug suit, armed with bazillions of firearms, flying around closeby and trying to shoot the young hero chasing him, of course causing heavy damage on the surroundings. You barely had time to properly process all of this before Mary Jane grabbed you on your sleeve and pulled you with her, Peter already out of sight.

Instead, a small group of even more young heroes were visible from your peripheral vision. Something about them was familiar…

You had no chance on trying to think about it as the beetle was once more racing past you, Nova still following close behind. But the beetle wasn’t stupid. As he crossed you and Mary Jane, he got an idea how to distract Nova enough to escape and continue on whatever the hell he was planning to do in the first place. He had to threaten innocent lives, and he did by aiming at the building you two were running next to, and firing. As he expected, Nova stopped in his tracks, but before he could save you and Mary Jane, the oh so well known Spider-Man himself already appeared and picked you two up.

You could have sworn you saw Nova’s mouth grimace at that, as if he wanted to save you by himself badly. Spidey put you and Mary Jane down at the rooftop of a fast food restaurant two blocks away from the ‘battlefield’, telling you two to wait there until the beetle is defeated. But Mary Jane was too curious for her own good, looking for a safe way down as soon as Spider-Man was out of eyesight again. You just stood there, unsure if you should follow Spider-Man’s order, or if you should follow Mary Jane’s lead. Expecting that you were safe there, you decided for the first and just sat down, shaking from fear. How you knees didn’t give in much sooner was beyond you, you were probably just frozen in horror.

Sadly, Spidey seemed to have miscalculated the competence of his teammate as you saw both the beetle and Nova emerge from around the corner once more, getting awfully close to your “safe spot” on the rooftop. You didn’t hear Mary Jane calling out for you, it all happened too fast. A beam of the young hero actually hitting the beetle, causing him to crash into the concrete in a very unfortunate way, which caused a few of his firearms to go haywire and hit the fast food restaurant, the rooftop collapsing and pulling you down with in in a deadly grasp of gravity. Mary Jane already managed to get down and immediately ran over to the broken corner of the building, screaming out your name in a desperate attempt to gain a response, a life sign. You did hear her, you were able to respond, but the sheer horror, the pure fear of almost dieing once more by falling into a death trap that is a collapsing rooftop numbed you and took away your ability to process all the noise, and to feel the fact that you actually got hurt. You were still lucky though, the only thing that happened was a piece of the broken building to bruise your left leg, and get you stuck. It hurt like a bitch, but no flesh wound, no broken bones.

The only noise you could manage to produce was coughing as the dust of the partially pulverized walls of the restaurant scratched in your throat. You could also barely process that someone grabbed your waist and pulled you out of the ruined building, gently placing you down on the street, right next to Mary Jane. Slowly, the blurry vision and the loud, annoying beep in your ears died down and you realized that it was Nova pulling you out. 

“Next time don’t try to murder me while playing hero okay?”

You had no idea where that came from, but you said it. Probably just another panic reaction. But his expression was priceless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah firstly, I have the headcanon of Sam being heavily into memes and stuff.  
> Secondly, I know that usually MJ’s father is a dick, too, but for the sake of this fic and since different universe blah blah and it never getting mentioned in ultimate spider-man blah blah I decided they’re just awesome in this one.


	3. The project

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This would either turn into the best thing ever, or the worst.

Well, at least this time you didn’t punch him. That’s the first thought that popped up in Nova’s mind as he finally processed your statement. He stared at you, arms now crossed over his chest while Mary Jane seemed to treat your injured leg. It really damn hurt like a bitch, so you may be forgiven if you are still rather hostile.

“Wow and here I thought you’d thank me this time.”

You were about to answer, but trying to stand up an especially stingy jolt of pain ran through your entire leg, and as expected made you mad. Hissing in both pain and anger, caused by that pain, you just responded with “Why thank you for almost killing me and then having the decency to pull me out of that shit.”

 _’Would you look at that, kitty got claws.’_ He thought, huffing and getting all defensive now.

“It’s not my fault the webhead placed you on that rooftop, I had no clue you were there!”

“..... Fine, then I am mad at both of you.”

Fair enough. That, he can deal with. Finding out you were unable to walk on your own, Mary Jane now supported your body with her own, thanking the young hero and then finally getting back home with you. 

“You should go see a doctor about this, just in case.” MJ mentioned as she gently helped you sit down on a stool in her home. You shook your head.

“Can’t. No insurance. Can’t afford it.”  
That was only half of the truth. Your father would have gotten contacted. Absolute No-Go.

“Since it was an accident caused by a S.H.I.E.L.D member, they are supposed to cover the bill for that, aren’t they?”

Huh, good point. You looked up, the pain still making you angry enough to forget about your ‘always avoid eye-contact’ philosophy.

“Maybe, but I think a painkiller and some rest will do. It’s just a bruise, no open wound or something.”

“Fine, but if it doesn’t get better I will personally carry you there if you still refuse to see a doctor.”

You agreed, lifting your injured leg on the table to get a proper look at the bruise while MJ left the room to get a painkiller. A big, violet bruise, as big as a freaking fist. But that was about it. It throbbed, causing a slightly painful discomfort, it was only actually causing pain when you moved your leg, or stood. You had no idea why, but the first thought you had as you saw it in all it’s glory was taking a picture. Who knows if that could come in handy sometime.

20 minutes after you took the painkiller you were actually able to stand again. The pain didn’t fade away completely, but you were able to walk by limping around. It was good enough for you to be able to take a shower which you badly needed, you were still covered in dust and dirt.

As you left the shower cabin, you saw a breathtakingly beautiful (F/C) dress hanging on the radiator. Oh, right. The photoshooting. Actually that would brighten up your mood, you trusted MJ’s skills, so you didn’t hesitate on putting it on. It was a bit tight, but it did fit.

“Wow you look great in that, I knew it was the right choice!” MJ chirped, clapping her hand after you left the bathroom with freshly blow-dried hair. You felt a little awkward and stared at your feet again, mumbling a thanks.

“So… w-what am I supposed to do now?”

“Nothing yet, we’re not done styling you.”

Wait, she’s not putting make up on you or is she?  
Yep. Yep she is. Before you knew it you sat at a chair in her room, staring at your own face in a mirror while MJ was checking her equipment, figuring out what look would suit you the best. You just kept on staring. The longer you looked at yourself, the less you liked how you looked. Especially considering that MJ wore close to none Make up and looked perfect. You’d kill to have a face like that.

“Did you ever put on make up before?” She asked, you didn’t notice she talked to you, you were too busy judging and hating yourself more and more with every second you looked at the mirror.

“(Y/N)?”

_God, how much you hated yourself._

You were heavily startled when you felt a hand on your shoulder, almost jumping 3 feet into the air - at least it felt like that. 

“Are you okay?”

“U-Uh.. yeah.. just got lost in thoughts..”

You told her that you never wore any make up before, and had no idea how to do apply any. MJ tapped her chin with some kind of brush thing, then turned the chair around so you couldn’t see your own reflection.

“Okay then I will do your make up. How about we do 3 different styles. One decent, almost natural look just highlighting your features, one dramatic and elegant style, and the last something crazy and wild.”

“...... W-well you are the boss….”

“That’s just what I wanted to hear~!”

It felt weird, whenever you were not told to close your eyes, you had no idea what to focus on, so you just stared at MJ’s face. You were so jealous of her looks. Not being able to see your face in the mirror didn’t help with the self-hating judgement.

“All done, now let’s see what I can do with your hair.”

You had no idea what she was doing there, now standing behind you, circling you every now and then, fiddling with strands of your hair every now and then, until she seemed to be done. 

“Alright, go take a look at yourself while I prepare the background!”

Prepare the background? You wondered what she was meaning by that, but then saw her shove off some stuffed animals from her bed, and remove a few things from a wall. Humming, she stared at some of the plushies now laying on the ground, placing a few back on the bed, then removing them once more, weird shuffling. You closed your eyes, taking a deep breath, and turned around on the chair to look at the result. 

Seeing yourself now, your mouth was agape, your eyes scanned every inch of your face once more. Despite the fact she barely changed anything, since this was the decent set, you felt like looking at an entirely different person. Maybe you should start using make up on a daily basis, but then again it collided with ‘pride’. Make up, only for special occasions, and not for daily attempts to fit in better.

You were surprised how quickly the first set was through. After Mary Jane finally managed to decide on the perfect background arrangement, she gave you minimal orders, and took only 5 pictures in total before asking you to get changed into the next outfit and remove the make up with wet tissues.

During the second session - the ‘dramatic and elegant’ one, she actually only took 3 pictures, whistling and looking up from the camera.   
“You’re a natural, as if you were born to model for photography. Like, you have that certain expression - wow that’s hard to describe.”

“.....Uh.. t-thank you….?”

“After we’re done with the next set, I want you to create your social media accounts and send us friend invitations while I put some nice filters on your pics, alright?”

“Do I have to choose my real name?”

“Well… there are gray zones, most of us don’t want our complete, real name to be online, but at least your first name or your last name should be the real one so we can tell it’s you.”

Well, in that case you would be at least a bit harder to find for the bullies. You agreed to her request, and after 4 more pictures, removing the make up once more and changing into comfortable pajamas, you grabbed MJ’s laptop and created accounts. She herself sat down on her computer - lucky girl has both a laptop AND a computer, you only had your phone. 

“Okay… done.. aaaand done.”

“Yeah I saw your friend requests, already accepted them!” MJ beamed, now hectically waving at you to make gain your attention and come closer to take a look at her work.

“M’lady, I hereby present you your profile pictures!”

Wow. _Woooooooooooooooooooow_. Is that really you? You already failed to recognize yourself when you looked at the mirror, but MJ’s work made you look like it was all professional. Like you were professional.

“Wouldn’t it be better to use.. normal pictures for the profile? Like what if I someday here ‘hey you look nothing like your pictures in real life!’”

MJ guffawed and ruffled your hair. “(Y/N) everyone looks different on their profile pictures, it’s totally fine. But if you really want a all natural picture we can do that.”

You thought about it for a while, staring at the screen. Looking like this, the bullies will probably never figure out it’s you, and maybe you make some friends online when they think you look like that 24/7. People that aren’t going to your school.

“Screw it, let’s keep those.”

 

Since you were so busy the entire time you didn’t realize how many messages you missed on your cellphone, you almost forgot about the pain in your leg, too. It only forced it’s way back into your mind when you limped back to the bed. Thank god you didn’t have any homework today, you weren’t focused enough for anything right now, frantically responding to the amount of messages from everyone. Almost all of them were worried texts of your almost friends about the state of your leg, since ‘they have heard you got injured’. How did they hear about that? Maybe MJ contacted them while you took a shower.

It made you happy they were worried about you, but what made you happy the most was, as expected, a message from Sam. Of course his first text was a message of concern about your leg, telling you he hopes you are okay otherwise. But the second message was a request. He was asking you to spend some time with him tomorrow after school.

As much happiness as it caused, it also caused nervousness. He wanted to hang out. Just you and him. He did make you feel safe and protected in school, surrounded by bullies everywhere. But this would be different.

_Wait, it’s not like he asked you for a date or something, just two people hanging out to deepen the friendship. Focus, (Y/N)!_

It took you forever before you finally answered with “Ok sure”. Your whole body felt weird, as if you were flying. And you grinned like an idiot, even though you were freaking nervous already. What do people do when they hand out? What could you two talk about, there was nothing interestin-

Furious buzzing, as if you got a million of messages at the same time. What the actual hell?  
You somehow didn’t dare to unlock your cellphone again and take a look, but you noticed that MJ’s cellphone vibrated just as much, so she got the messages too. Was it Harry? He is the only one the two of you have a group conversation with.

She smiled brightly and looked up at you.

“You really should take a look.”

A lump formed in your throat for some reason, probably nervousness. But you did unlock the device again and took a look. A new group conversation, with all of them. You opened the convo and saw af of them getting nuts over the photos. In a good way.

“You look like an adult!”  
“Is that really her?”  
-weird confucius-like sentence that was probably a compliment-  
And so on, and so on. Okay, that gave you a boost of confidence. Despite the fact your leg got hurt, today was a good day. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as good.

That is, if this one hero doesn’t pop up again. You had the feeling that it was no coincidence that you two have met again, that it won’t be the last time, and that it will again include you falling somehow from a building.

But time will tell if that thought comes true. At the moment, the only thing you should focus on was tomorrow. Especially the “hanging out with Sam” thing. You wondered what he wanted to do. Where he wanted to go.

You could barely fall asleep, you were too excited and yet terrified. Spending time with the tan, overly confident boy could either deepen the friendship, or end it.

 

Just 3 hours, that’s how long you’ve slept this night. Opening your eyes completely was a task you couldn’t do, MJ laughing about how you had this constant ‘I am soooo suspicious of you’ look on your face thanks to that. The fact you were so overly tired was bad, you didn’t want to be all sleepy and exhausted, yawning a lot, when you meet up with Sam after school. So you tried drinking coffee for the first time in your life. As expected… it tasted awful. Why do adults drink this bitter brewed bullshit?

But it did help you with your tiredness. You finally opened your eyes completely and got ready, leaving together with MJ. Peter looked less tired this time when he joined the two of you, and just like yesterday, half-way in, Sam joined the group as well. And just like yesterday, you inched closer to him without noticing it yourself. You were far too busy with your imagination running wild. So many possibilities of what exactly is going to happen today, the neverending fear of the friendship splitting if you fuck anything up, yada yada.

Using the fact you were tired as hell as excuse, you explained why you weren’t really participating in any conversation yet, which sufficed for quite a while. But then you had history class. By then, you ran through enough different scenarios in your mind to be able to properly pay attention, just in time to hear the teacher announce that everyone has to team up with another student to prepare a presentation, you had 3 weeks to finish. Within seconds after this announcement, Sam almost literally popped up next to you. 

“Partners? Of course we are partners.” He answered his own question without even doubting you’d consider someone else as partner. Even though you lived with MJ till next week, so choosing her would have been a better idea logically, you indeed would have chosen him anyway. 

But then it hit you. If the two of you had to work on a project together, it would mean that the two of you had to meet up very frequently for the next 3 weeks. And that he might want to visit you for that. Shit.

And if you screw anything up, it would be the most awkward 3 weeks ever. Awkward, and hurtful.

Shit.

Or… this project would just boost up the pace of the friendship developing between you, maybe to the point you become besties after these 3 weeks. You didn’t dare to dream about anything beyond regular friendship, so the idea of becoming best friends startled you for a second. You weren’t good enough to be anyone’s best friend. 

Well, _maybe_ you weren’t.

You will see.


End file.
